2020 NAQT Missouri Qualifier Policies and Procedures

Unless announced otherwise by the tournament co-directors (Jeffrey Hill and Matt Chadbourne), these policies and procedures will be used at the 2020 NAQT Missouri Qualifier on February 29, 2020.

Question Security Reminder

Please remind your students that posting any information about question content on social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter,
or otherwise communicating information about question content in any way that a coach or student participating in a future tournament using the same question set could receive the information,
is absolutely prohibited until the editors of the question set have announced that the set is clear for discussion.
Failure to maintain question security risks jeopardizing the integrity of future tournaments using the same question set and makes anyone providing such information complicit in any cheating attempts using that information.

Departure Confirmation Text

To assure us that you have not dropped from the tournament at the last minute, please text (or call) the tournament director on the morning of the tournament when you are preparing to leave your school (or hotel) with "[school name] is on the way".
Providing this notification in a timely manner will give us absolute confidence that everybody will show up on time so that accurate schedules will be distributed.
If we do not receive notice from you by 7:45, we will attempt to contact you at the phone number provided during registration.
If we do not hear from you by 8:15, we may assume that you are not coming and your teams will be at risk of being dropped from the tournament.
If a different coach will be accompanying your team or your contact number has otherwise changed, please ensure that they are aware of this request and let the tournament director know so that we have the correct contact information.
Thank you for your assistance.

Roster Composition

Any student in grades 9-12 who is eligible to represent their high school in a MSHSAA sanctioned interscholastic scholar bowl competition may participate in this tournament. A student may not play for more than one team over the course of the tournament.

Any number of eligible players may compete for a team over the course of the tournament. To maximize playing time for all students, we recommend that rosters be limited to no more than 6 players per team. To simplify scorekeeping and to keep games running efficiently, no more than 6 students may play for a team in a particular game.

If a single team roster has more than 6 students, we may ask the coach to consider splitting the team to fill an opening in the field if a last minute drop cannot be replaced from the waitlist. Coaches have no obligation to do so, but should consider the benefit of giving all of their students more playing time and reducing the overall number of byes in the tournament schedule.

Default Team Advancement Procedure

After a round robin has been completed within a pool, teams are initially ranked by win-loss record against the other teams in that pool. Any scrimmages between two bye teams from different pools (if applicable) or earlier games that were not designated as carry-over games are ignored. Unless specified otherwise, statistical tiebreakers are used to determine advancement to the next stage of the tournament.

For teams tied at the same record, statistics are evaluated in this order, excluding overtime points:

Greatest average points per game.

Greatest average points per bonus heard.

Greatest number of 15 point tossups per game.

Greatest number of 10 point tossups per game.

If the above statistics are insufficient to break the tie, the teams are seated to play a short tiebreaker match of 3 tossups without bonuses. If the score is tied after three tossups, tossups continue to be read until the next score change. If an insufficient number of extra questions are available, a smaller number of questions may be designated by the tournament director.

If insufficient questions remain to break the tie, the only remaining tiebreaker is a coin flip.

Refer to the tournament format description for tiebreaker and finals procedures used in the final championship pool.

Revised 2016-11-13

Electronics Policy

Please remember to silence all cell phones and other electronic devices before the first round.

Each team's four active players may NOT use cell phones or other electronic devices during a game. This restriction begins when the moderator prepares to start the game (introductions, buzzer check, etc.) and does not end until both teams have agreed on the final score. This includes halftime and timeouts.

Coaches, alternates not active in the game, and other spectators may silently use electronic devices during the game as long as use of those devices does not distract game play or otherwise compromise the integrity of any game. Moderators will reserve the right, at their discretion, to require any person in the room to cease use of electronic devices.

Sending or receiving ANY question content or other information (e.g. question subjects) that could unfairly assist a team that is actively playing or could play the same questions in the future is cheating and is absolutely prohibited regardless of intent.